Quotes from Bruce D. Perry

Every day we "fill our reward bucket" with various sources of reward—and not every day is the same (see Figure 4). Some days will be rich with friends and family; other days you may fill your "reward bucket" by volunteering at a local food kitchen. And some days, we are left empty, unfulfilled.

You could say that racism is embedded in the top, "rational" part of your brain, whereas implicit bias involves the distorting "filters" created in lower parts of the brain.

A lifelong set of beliefs and behaviors can emerge when trauma is experienced at a young age. In one of the most serious manifestations, early sexual abuse can poison intimacy, even if the person has no actual recollection of specific instances of abuse.

Physical well-being and your emotional health are deeply connected.

You don't get trained in cultural sensitivity—you go spend time immersed in the culture, spend time with other people.

The infant's capability to be empathic and nurturing—their capacity to love—depends upon the nature, quality, and number of loving interactions they experience early in life.

means that cultural-sensitivity training, which may help get at the intellectual elements of learning, needs to be coupled with real experiences and real relationships. That is what will help change you. It's hard for many people to do, and it certainly doesn't fix the whole system, but it's a start.

las experiencias repetitivas y pautadas en un ambiente seguro pueden tener un impacto tremendo en el cerebro— comencé a integrar las lecciones de Mamá P. sobre la importancia del afecto físico y de la estimulación en nuestros cuidados.

We have to think about ways to raise our children with more opportunities to be exposed to the magnificence of human diversity earlier in their lives.

The lesson for me was that a key aspect of What happened to you? is What didn't happen for you? What attention, nurturing touch, reassurance—basically, what love—didn't you get? I realized that neglect is as toxic as trauma. —Dr. Perry

Dismissive caregiving can lead to an unquenchable thirst for love. You cannot love if you have not been loved.

asking the fundamental question "What happened to you?" can help each of us know a little more about how experiences—both good and bad—shape

asking the fundamental question "What happened to you?" can help each of us know a little more about how experiences—both good and bad—shape us.

caminar de manera coordinada responde a un mesencéfalo y un tronco encefálico bien regulados, regiones cruciales para la coordinación de la respuesta al estrés.

Yes! How were you loved—it makes all the difference. In all the conversations I've had, my experience has been that dysfunction shows up in direct proportion to how you were or were not loved.

there are dozens of rhythmic ways to help us regulate.

Balance is the core of health.

doing things with movement and rhythm offers a more connected way of communicating.

La memoria es la capacidad de seguir adelante arrastrando ciertos aspectos de la experiencia. Incluso los músculos tienen memoria, algo que puede apreciarse con los cambios que se producen en ellos como resultado del ejercicio. No obstante, y más importante aún, la memoria es lo que el cerebro hace, el modo en que nos forma, y permite que nuestro pasado ayude a determinar nuestro futuro. En gran medida, el cerebro nos convierte en quienes somos(...).

Patterned, repetitive, rhythmic activity makes the overactive and overly reactive core regulatory networks (see Figure 2) get back "in balance." Music falls into this category—both playing and listening.

rhythm is so important, and it's often overlooked as a therapeutic tool.

And just as with trauma, several essential questions can help us assess whether a situation is neglectful, and if so, how great the impact will be. When during development did the neglect take place? What was the pattern? How severe or depriving was the neglect? How long did it last? And, since absolute neglect is rare, what 'buffering' factors were present when the neglect occurred?

regulating potential of patterned, repetitive activity like dancing or massage.

This split between verbal and performance scores is often seen in abused or traumatized children and can indicate that the developmental needs of certain brain regions, particularly those cortical areas involved in modulating the lower, more reactive regions have been not been met.